Sine Cosine Potentiometers - nonlinear
Special potentiometer with sine/cosine signal
Sine/cosine potentiometers represent a special case in the range. They allow conductive plastic potentiometers to be operated for the entire 360° range. This is achieved by using two wipers on the resistance track. One wiper is used for sine and one for cosine at 90° intervals.
There are two connections for positive and negative voltage (opposite) and two for earth (also opposite), which are connected to the resistance track. Two wipers pick up the signal with a 90 ° offset on the resistance track. When the shaft rotates, a continuous, periodic signal in sine and cosine form is generated at the two outputs.
The sliders always provide a signal for the 360° range and there is no dead zone as with standard conductive plastic potentiometers. Due to the possibility of combining the two signals in the evaluation, a digital incremental signal with information on the direction of rotation can be generated by interpolation.